I found this in the archive: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.user/26685 I am experiencing the same problem. However it works with variate_generator - see attached code. Is this simply a documentation bug which should say `Must always use variate_generator' or are the distributions supposed to work with any source of randomness? In which case they don't in 1.35.0 and I will go report it. Thanks, Kevin Martin #include #include <iostream> template<typename Randmoness_>void func1(Randmoness_ &r) { boost::normal_distribution<> x(180, 60); boost::uniform_real<> X(5.0, 10.0); std::cout << x(r) << " " << X(r) << std::endl; } template<typename Randmoness_>void func2(Randmoness_ &r) { boost::normal_distribution<> x(180, 60); boost::variate_generator > y(r, x); boost::uniform_real<> X(5.0,10.0); boost::variate_generator > Y(r, X); std::cout << y() << " " << Y() << std::endl; } int main() { boost::mt19937 rng; func1(rng); func2(rng); return 0; }